Martán Wines is an exciting project commencing the journey making my own artisan, singular wines focusing on traditional organic wine making on a garage scale. For many years I have operated Valencian Cellar Tours offering specialist vineyard and wine tasting experiences but I wished to make my own wine so aquired a 1hct plot of Centenary Bobal bush vines; part of the lieu-dit “Cañada Pastora” in the parish of Casas de Eufemia, Requena.
These rolling vineyard lands have been chronicled for their vineyards & wines for 300yrs and most likely before the Conquest. Partnering with a local bodega pertaining to five generations farming the land, we harvested my first bobal in Sept. 2022. The vineyard is organically certified and have followed a minimal intervention approach; without irrigation nor chemicals/fertilisers, fermenting only with the grapes autoctonous yeasts with very low sulphite levels to protect the finished wines. The aim was to retain as much of the wines soul as possible from barrel to bottle!
The 2022 vintage produced very healthy grapes with almost no worries of mildew or other issues. Grown “en vaso” the free standing bush vines of low yield were hand harvested at dawn with selection into baskets for tractor transport to the bodega.
A second selection done prior to loading the small destemmer/estrujadora just breaking the skins lightly ..the smaller berries passing whole to the fermenter. Using a stainless steel vat with temperature control the grapes remained at under 10degc for approx. 36hrs with the temperature rising naturally to ferment using only the grapes own autoctonos yeasts. The wine was fermented fully dry at moderate temp. to preserve freshness with a further 8 days on the skins before racking, decant and then transfer to French oak for malolactic fermentation.
We have produced a wine of 7 months crianza of just 3 barrels “Caña Pastorita” and a longer 12 month crianza of 5 barrels “Caña Pastora”. In total 8 x 225l barrels of varied tonnerelia & maceration, add subtle character nuances to each wine!
Both wines are classified under DO Utiel-Requena
These are very much naturally produced wines that reflect the terroir, the weather and the winemaking skill in making the best of the materia prima. The wines have no manipulation or stabilisation prior to bottling & this makes a significant difference in taste of the final wine!
Minimal sulphites.. just enough to preserve the wine (below organic levels). They are also vegan friendly. FYI “Natural” wines rely solely on the wines own produced sulphites but this is not always successful, leading to wine spoilage & often sour funky flavours that are not for everyone!
The natural corks used are sourced locally from forests of the Sierra de Espadan Parque Natural, Castellon with a natural beeswax coating supporting local cork artisans & mediterranean oak forest. Labels feature the Irish Martán family crest design logo branding my wines.
The 2023 vintage was more challenging due to low rainfall and a hot summer so by picking earlier produced a fresher, finer style of wine of moderate alcohol but was elegantly balanced in barrel tastings. These Bobal red wines are now bottled and maturing for release Jan & June 2025.
Caña Pastorita & Caña Pastora are now available in Feb.24 to taste/purchase and will improve further in bottle. Visits to these historic vines are possible plus other boutique tastings . By purchasing Martán bobal wines you are contributing to my project´s very existence... costs are high for these artesanal wines of low bottlings!
Please ask for availability & tour options/prices as can be tailor made for you.